News from Tynemouth
Fishy father gets his teeth into childcare!
A dedicated dad at Tynemouth's Blue Reef Aquarium has come up with a novel form of childcare.
The rare pyjama cardinal fish is using his mouth as a novel mobile nursery for his newborn babies.
The model parent is looking after no fewer than five babies and staff are hopeful that more may be on the way in the coming months.
Originally from the Indo-Pacific, the pyjama cardinal fish is also known as the 'spotted' and 'coral' cardinal because of its distinctive markings.
Known as 'mouth brooders', cardinal fish are among the marine world's most attentive parents with the fathers taking total responsibility for rearing the young.
The males first look after the eggs and then, once they hatch after about a week, they will then transfer the newborn fry into their mouths where they will remain for up to a month.
Blue Reef curator Zahra d'Aronville said they were delighted with the new arrivals: "Cardinal fish numbers in the wild are relatively stable at the moment but the more captive bred fish we are able to successfully rear here at the aquarium the better.
"It is still relatively early days but we're all pleased with the way things are progressing so far.
"The fact that the cardinal fish have started to breed at all is a really good indication that we have successfully managed to get the conditions of their marine display just right.
"We're hopeful that more babies are on the way and that they will continue to be such attentive parents," she added.
Once the young are old enough to look after themselves their father spits them into a long spined sea urchin or other protected area where they will continue to live, without any further parental care but safe from would-be predators.
Cardinal fish are a group of relatively small fish that like to inhabit reef overhangs and crevices. They have large eyes as they are mainly nocturnal and become most active after dark.
